Advertisement

UK ticket-holder comes forward to claim £148m prize

The UK ticket-holder who scooped a massive £148.6 million on the EuroMillions draw has come forward. It's not known yet if they want to keep their identity a secret.

The prize won last night is the second-largest jackpot yet in the UK.

It is the largest pot since Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, won £161 million last July, with the difference in the exchange rate meaning this week's jackpot is slightly less.

Lady Luck is clearly shining down on the UK once again with another big EuroMillions win this year - the seventh jackpot to be won so far in 2012.

This new jackpot winning ticket-holder flies into second place in the exclusive National Lottery Rich List.

We have plenty of champagne on ice and look forward to welcoming the lucky ticket-holder into the National Lottery millionaires' club. Over 2,900 people have become millionaires since the National Lottery began and, to date, our players have raised an amazing £28 billion and counting for National Lottery Good Causes.

– National Lottery spokesman

The winning main EuroMillions numbers were 50, 21, 17, 48 and 11, and the Lucky Star numbers were 09 and 10.

The winning ticket collects £148,656,000.

Here are the official top 10 biggest winners since the lottery began.

1. Colin and Chris Weir: £161,653,000

The Scottish husband and wife, from Largs in Ayrshire, said they were "tickled pink" after becoming Europe's biggest Lottery winners in July last year.

Married for 30 years and with two children, the life-changing £161 million prize catapulted them into the Sunday Times Rich List above Beatle Ringo Starr and Sir Tom Jones.

The haul was won in May 2010 but the winner kept their identity secret.

6. Nigel Page: £56,008,113

Self-confessed white van man Nigel Page, 43, scooped a cool £56 million in February 2010. The skydiving enthusiast, who lived in a three-bedroom semi near Cirencester, Wiltshire, married his girlfriend Justine, 42, and moved into a mansion in the Cotswolds.

7. Anonymous: £46,432,285

One British ticket scooped the massive prize in February this year but decided not to go public.

8. Les and Sam Scadding: £45,570,835

Unemployed mechanic Les Scadding, 58, and his wife Samantha Peachey-Scadding, 38, from Caerleon, South Wales, bought one of two winning tickets which shared a £90 million jackpot in November 2009.

Grandfather Mr Scadding was £68 overdrawn on his bank account on the day he bought his lucky ticket and had also beaten testicular cancer.

The other £45 million-winning EuroMillions ticket was bought by a syndicate of seven office workers based in Merseyside.

The winners - dubbed the Magnificent Seven - were employed by Hewlett Packard to carry out IT work at a BT office in Liverpool.